Vico's More than Human Humanism

This essay considers how in Vico the alterity of nature plays a role in the formation of humanity, as part of the complexity and interconnectivity of life, resisting acritical historicization and reduction to purely human paradigms. The theoretical implications of this problematic approach to Vico's humanism and making of history lead to a new understanding of Auerbach's idea that "our philological home is the earth," one in which philology and philosophy in a genuinely Vichian fashion return to interrogate not only the historical institutions but also their relationships to earth and the natural environment as a significant part in the formation of humanity. Thus, this essay proposes Vico's idea of "places of humanity" as the driving force of a new humanism, one that is "more than human," and finally pays attention to what has been excluded or not valorized from purely historicist interpretations of his
philosophy.